Following Faith Peggy Fletcher Stack and Kristen Moulton

The nation's faith leaders are making a pitch to Major League Baseball: Toss out smokeless tobacco.

"Baseball players are role models for adoring youth whose lives are threatened by chewing tobacco,” said Galen Carey, National Evangelical Association vice president for government, in a news release. “The players’ union should agree now to a tobacco-free ballpark, for their own sake and for the health of their fans.”

Smokeless tobacco use causes oral cancer, gum disease, tooth decay and mouth lesions, the release notes. Its use may also serve as a gateway to cigarette smoking, the nation’s No. 1 cause of preventable death.

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has proposed prohibition of tobacco use at major-league games, a move supported by a growing coalition of medical groups, public health officials and fans. Smokeless tobacco already is banned in the minor leagues.

The religious leaders, representing 25 faith groups, are particularly concerned about the rising use of smokeless tobacco use among high school boys, which has climbed 36 percent since 2000.

Several young baseball stars have acknowledged publicly their addiction to smokeless tobacco and the difficulty in quitting, but so far the players' union has not responded to Selig's proposal.

"Big-league ballplayers have a responsibility,” the release said, “to be better role models for young fans.”

Baseball fans can send letters to their favorite MLB team asking them to support the tobacco ban.